Cinar was established in New York the late 1970s by Micheline Charest and Ronald A. Weinberg as a film and television distribution company. In 1984 Cinar was relocated to Montreal where its founders changed the company's focus from media distribution to production, and primarily in the area of children's television programming (including Animal Crackers, Emily of New Moon, Mona the Vampire and The Wombles). As a production company, Cinar was also involved in the work of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, Madeline, Space Cases, The Shoe People and arguably its most famous production Arthur and Zoboomafoo. The firm became a public company in September 1993 and by 1999 had an annual revenue of around $150 million and had its shows being broadcast in more than 150 countries.
In the late 1990s Cinar bought the rights to all the shows owned and made by British animation company FilmFair. Cinar was also involved in productions in numerous countries, including Australia. In 1998, for example, the company co-produced Sally Marshall is Not an Alien with the Adelaide Motion Picture Company and Infinity Pictures (qq.v). The company's fortunes reversed in 2000, however, following the disclosure that more than $122 million dollars had been invested by Charest and Weinberg in Bahamian bank accounts without the Cinar board members approval. It was also revealed that the company had paid American screenwriters for work while continuing to accept Canadian federal grants for content. While the province of Quebec did not file criminal charges, Cinar payed a settlement to Canadian and Quebec tax authorities of $17.8 million and another $2.6 million to Telefilm Canada, a Canadian federal funding agency. The scandal also resulted in the value of Cinar stock plummeting and the company was eventually delisted. In 2004 Cinar was purchased for more than $190 million by a group led by Nelvana founder, Michael Hirsh and former Nelvana President, Toper Taylor. The company was rebranded the Cookie Jar Group.
